Dame1701 wrote on 2026-08-04, 21:31:

You're absolutely right, it started way before DooM, we were creating maps right back in the early 80s. There are plenty of archived magazines you can find online that prove it too. Didn't DooM have a map key that would show the level map anyway?

leileilol wrote on 2026-08-04, 21:45:

Doom was a catalyst though! Construction kit/board editor games couldn't really capture the zeitgeist. Doom did.

There were also editors for Wolf3D sure but that game is extremely flimsy for supporting creations. Most often Wolf3d mods were just directly modified shareware versions.

Both great and totally right points.
Games did exist that allowed map creation before DooM
DooM did bring that editing of maps into the zeitgeist of games BUT
When did the craze of including an editor that was extremely useable start?

Ok so I was into Warhammer 40k like you wouldnt believe, still am in a way but for the purposes of what we're talking about I wont bother talking that further than that.
I remember having every but as much fun and even spending more time making my own maps than I ever did playing the game itself and thats because...

So I just installed Chaos gate onto a Win98 PC.
The game start screen opens and you are presented with two useable options.
Play
Launch Scenario Builder

Editing game maps is a MAIN option when you click the icon.
That is not what you get when you start DooM of any version Ive ever played.

There are other games that do that, you start the game and as part of the game start screen one of the options is to make maps.

When did THAT start?

Popular game Warcraft II had a map editor bundled in 1995 so you can directly trace a line to that. The map editor was for Windows 3.1/95 (so you can multitask while editing, use a large res, etc), and installing Warcraft II would provide these program group applications/start menu shortcuts pointing directly to the editor it came with. Strategy games were relatively more trivial for having mainstream editor support as there's not really experimental 3d engine stuff of the time you'd have to deal with.

Id's DoomEd (the editor they used to create Doom's levels) was for Next machines, they couldn't have possibly bundled that on extra floppies to their registered customers (if they did they'll probably get tons of tech support calls on why it doesn't work). The specifications of the data were wide open however and that's where there's work of developers making new DOS/Windows-based editors come into play...

A little earlier (mid-95) there was CyberBykes shipping an editor right from the main menu but who cares that game's not popular and given how it played it couldn't be popular even if you jingle a level editor right in front of it, even if it's true 3d and had slopes. there's virtually no cyberbykes level editing scene. However I am legally obligated to acknowledge the existence of CyberBykes doing something early when it did do a lot of things early (like rendering in 1280x1024 and having mouse aim).

Yeah CyberBykes was pretty early. Warcraft II editor was part of its meta...
I remember CRD did a video on CyberBykes a few years ago. Rather amusing it was too.

leileilol wrote on 2026-08-04, 23:54:

Popular game Warcraft II had a map editor bundled in 1995 so you can directly trace a line to that.

that's a good example, being able to edit RTS maps is the main reason i still play empire earth! they're often the most intuitive scenario and map tools too, while some fps editors take serious investment before being able to make anything much (though Build was quick to get into)